Surely we all knew Sean Penn was going to win?

It was painfully obvious. It doesn’t matter that Mickey Rourke’s performance in the Wrestler was better. It never does. Sean Penn was playing a gay civil rights activist / politician, who dies at the end of the film. Poor Mickey never stood a chance!

The Oscars is so rarely about the best films of the year that it’s not even worth watching. They pick the five ‘worthiest’ films that came out in the last three months of the previous year and give them most of the nominations. Other films and actors are relegated to supporting and technical categories that most people don’t pay attention to.

Heath Ledger deserved the best supporting actor award without a shadow of a doubt. His performance in the Dark Knight was nothing short of phenomenal. He made Jack Nicholson’s Joker look ridiculous in comparison. But would he have even been nominated if he hadn’t died? I seriously doubt it.

The academy doesn’t recognise comic book movies as being worthy of Oscars. It doesn’t matter if the Dark Knight was one of the best films of the last year (which it was) or not. It’s the same deal for comedies. They all laughed at Will Ferrell, John C Reilly and Jack Black sang ‘A comedian at the Oscars’ a couple of years ago, but they clearly weren’t listening.

And what about animated films? Well, at least they have their own category at last, but that just means that they will never get a shot of the real prize. I see no reason why Wall E hadn’t earned a best picture nomination at least.

I’m not saying that the academy doesn’t sometimes get it right. Often the worthy films are the best films. Sometimes they do give blockbusters, like Lord of the Rings, the nod they deserve (even if I think Two Towers was better than Return of the King). But this seems to happen almost by accident, and far too rarely.

So is there any way to get it right? Is there any way to have a film award ceremony that picks the best films without letting the general public vote? I’m not against public votes per say, but if we did that then we’d be giving awards out to Mama Mia and Fast and Furious, while subtitled films wouldn’t stand a chance…

…but at least Mickey Rourke would win best actor for the Wrestler because it’s got fighting in it.

Transformers: Revenge of the fallen

I say, how jolly exciting! It's the new Transformers trailer:

Guilty Pleasures

Following on from my previous post about the Spirit, I thought I’d talk a little bit about those guilty pleasure films that you love, even though the film geek inside you says you probably shouldn’t.

For example, one of my favourite movies of all time is Varsity Blues. That’s right, the one with James Van Der Beek as the high school quarterback. And no, it’s not just because of the whipped-cream bikini, although that definitely helps.

My best friend and I must have watched it together at least 20 times. It’s likely that I’ve watched it more than any other film, with the exception of the original Star Wars trilogy. That doesn’t mean I like it more than the Godfather, it just means that it has incredible re-watch value.

I know this takes me slightly away from my original point, but there are some movies that you can just watch over an over again. The kind of film you’ll put on when you have no idea what you want to watch, especially if you’ve got a rotten hang-over and have an exhausting day of laying on the sofa planned.

Anyway, I digress, back to my guilty pleasure… I know that Varsity Blues isn’t the best written film ever made. It doesn’t have the greatest performances (although John Voight is pretty darn good) or the best direction, but it is an incredibly funny, well put together, piece of popcorn fodder.

I’m sure there will be film fans out there gasping in shock and horror at my admission that I love American teen comedies like this. Well, I guess there’s nothing I can do about that. I love good teen comedies and I love good American Football movies. This is the best of both worlds.

In fact, I’m now almost annoyed that I’ve felt the need to excuse my behaviour by pointing out that I know the film is not as worthy as other great pieces of cinema. It feels a bit like I’ve fallen into the Academy Awards trap – let’s find five worthy dramas that were released in November or December and nominate them in every category. We’ll give Heath Ledger a nod for Dark Knight because he died recently, but god forbid we recognise a comic-book movie as one of the best films of the year.

Hmmm… I seem to have gone slightly off topic again so I can have a rant at the Academy, sorry about that. So, if you’re still reading, what’s your guilty pleasure*?

*(films only please, no filth)

The Spirit

I have that feeling about The Spirit – you know the one where you really love a film that maybe you shouldn’t. I’m not talking about the movies that everyone knows are rubbish but love anyway because they are reminded of their childhood or for some other kitsch reason. I’m talking about the ones that you pretend fall into that first category, but that you actually really like.

OK, maybe that isn’t completely clear, so I’ll give you an example of each…

Goonies is a film that I watched when I was young. It was about kids going on an adventure, finding treasure and beating the bad guys. When it’s shown on TV these days I’ll watch it and laugh because I remember laughing when I was 6. However, deep down, I don’t really love watching the film any more.

By way of contrast I present the Karate Kid - a film that I will watch today and enjoy as much, if not more than when I was still in single digits. I still get emotional at the right moments and honestly believe that it’s an excellent film. There are those that would point out that it’s predictable and little more than 80’s cheese, but I still like it.

Got it now? Am I making sense? Good…

With that in mind I found The Spirit to be incredibly entertaining, very funny and just downright sexy! Was it anywhere near as cool as Sin City? Nope. Will any critics put it in the same league as The Dark Knight? I seriously doubt it. But none of that matters.

I’d never even heard of The Spirit before I saw the trailers a few months ago. Perhaps that is why I didn’t have any expectations and was able to watch the movie for what it was – a comic. It’s a ridiculous movie but the cast, particularly Samuel L Jackson as the spectacularly unhinged Octopus, keep you entertained throughout.

Well, they kept me entertained. During the screening that I saw I think a total of 15 people left the cinema (three groups as a opposed to one by one) complaining loudly about how stupid it was. However, to put that into context, I was sitting in a cinema at 11pm on a Saturday night in East London. It is more than likely that the people who left had come to see the latest Fast and Furious film but had gone in the wrong door!

So, to bring this rambling review to a close, if you like Frank Miller, enjoyed Sin City, but are like me and have a stupid sense of humour, then go see The Spirit. If not, then don’t waste your time or money. That is unless you’re a big fan of these ladies…

Lesbian Vampire Killers

Not only is this possibly the greatest film title that has ever existed, but it stars Matthew Horne and James Cordon who I recently discovered after watching the first two series of Gavin and Stacey on DVD.

Unfortunately it wasn't written by Cordon who co-created Gavin and Stacey, but I'll probably still give it a watch...

A Film for all ages?

Unsurprisingly a lot of film blogs are focusing on Christmas movies at the moment, with folk discussing the best, the worst, the funniest and the most random.

While I love Christmas films as much as anyone, these conversations do often frustrate me because there is an assumption that you can watch whatever film you want at this time of year. For many people, including myself, it's simply not true.

For example - My Christmas is celebrated at my mother's house by 4 generations of our family. There are no children (yet!) but our ages range from 27 (me) to 94 (my great-grandmother).

As wonderful as it is to have the whole family in attendance at this time of year, have you ever tried finding a movie to suit everyone's tastes? It's a nightmare!

For a start you can forget Die Hard or Leathal Weapon because the oldies don't like them. They also don't like comedies like Uncle Buck or National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (my personal favourite) because they're too silly. You can get them to watch White Christmas, which is fine with me, but then some of the other younger folk get bored. I'm OK with a lot of the Christmas classics but there are a lot of musicals that I just can't stand.

Where does that leave us? Well you can forget regular TV becuase, here in the UK, it's all repeats and dreadful Christmas specials. In fact the only watchable programmes or films that they put on the TV always have a surprise sex scene thrown in just to embarrass you in front of your Grandmother when you least expect it!

So I need help people. What films can I put on at Christmas that will entertain me as much as the rest of my family? It doesn't have to have a Christmas theme, just anything that really appeals to all ages.

Please help, my sanity depends on it.

I've never read a Sherlock Holmes novel, so I can't claim to be a real fan of the great detective. However, the purist that lurks within me is more than a little shocked by the first screen shots of the new film directed by Guy Ritchie.

This first one is OK...

But I'm a little concerned by this one...

Sherlock Holmes fighting with his shirt off? It doesn't seem quite right to me. Surely he could beat his opponent into submission using only his remarkable intelligence and cunning wit without needing to resort to physical violence.

I have never been overly confident that Ritchie is a good enough film maker to do Sherlock Holmes justice. However, I am more than confident in Robert Downey Jr's talent as an actor, so perhaps this might just work.

Wolverine Trailer

From what I understand this went live just a couple of hours ago, so is the closest thing to a scoop we've ever had here at Films and Things and I think it looks like a lot of fun.

I'm very excited to see Gambit finally show up - he was a glaring omission to the X-Men films. Maybe he would have been entertaining enough to prevent X3 from being one of the most disappointing films of the last 10 years, but I doubt it.

But I digress, check out the trailer for 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine' for yourself...

The Straw Men

It says here that Benderspink, the production-management company run by Chris Bender and JC Spink have picked up the rights to Michael Marshall’s book The Straw Men.

Michael Marshall is one of my favourite authors and while I prefer his earlier, more sci-fi books, the Straw Men series is probably the only story that will transfer to the big screen.

The first and third books in the series are good but, from what I remember, the second one was a bit poor so I’m hoping they’ll do something good with it when transferring the story to film.

If you are ever looking for some really crazy and quite disturbing books, I can highly recommend some of Marshall’s work. Only Forwards, Spares (both as Michael Marshall Smith) and The Intruders are my personal favourites. But be warned, they will mess with your head.

Then, if after reading those you have the stomach for it, check out What You Make It, one of his collections of short stories.

Gone Baby Gone

This weekend my truly delightful girlfriend brought me another DVD to watch. While it wasn’t a horror, it was probably far more harrowing due to the subject matter.

The release of Gone Baby Gone was delayed for a long time in the UK because of the Madeline McCann case. At first I thought the decision to pull the movie just before its release was an over-reaction, but quickly realised why it was done. The resemblance between ‘Maddy’ and the girl that goes missing in the film is striking. An unfortunate coincidence to say the least.

However, Gone Baby Gone was eventually released over here and I am very happy to say that, thanks to the gorgeous woman in my life (in case you’re wondering I’m still paying for my earlier Horror Movie post), I was finally able to see what all the fuss was about.

Now I’ve always rated Ben Affleck as an actor more than most people. What he has been guilty of, in my opinion, is accepting roles in too many bad movies. Matt Damon has made far better choices since Good Will Hunting, but that doesn’t mean that Affleck is a poor actor. Plus I don’t care what anyone else says, Daredevil was awesome.

Regardless of this, when I’ve heard people talking about Gone Baby Gone the consensus seems to be that Casey is the better actor of the Affleck brothers and that Ben should stay behind the camera. While I thought this might possibly be a back-handed compliment, having seen the film I now know what they mean, and it is in no way insulting.

This is the first time I’ve seen Casey in a lead role (I still haven’t watched The Assassination of Jesse James - careless I know) and he is excellent. I always liked him in the few movies I’d seen him in previously, and always thought he was the most under-rated character in Good Will Hunting, but this was the first time I really got to appreciate what a great talent he is. His performance is subtle but extremely believable and it is him that makes the film so uncomfortably real.

While it’s not something that people seem to appreciate these days, but Ben Affleck is a pretty good writer – he won an Oscar for it and everything. Not only did he help write another excellent film with Gone Baby Gone, but he also did an excellent job of directing it too. The bleak, depressing story is made all the more real for the world that Ben creates and you could be forgiven for thinking that the film was lead by a far more experienced director.

I realise that there is nothing new or insightful about what I’m saying here. Most people have written the same thing about this film and the Affleck brothers 18 months ago. However, I feel I can get away with it as I don’t think many people in the UK have really discovered this one yet and, if they get the chance, they should watch it as soon as possible.

All I can say is...

Oh for Fu*k's sake!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7748284.stm

Horror, I just don’t get it.

To an extent I’ve just said all I need to say in the headline to this post but, luckily for you, I’ll soldier on and exhaust the point anyway.

I’d like to think that I’m someone who enjoys a little bit of everything when it comes to films. I can find something to like in almost any genre, even the really pretentious ones…

However, horror just never appealed to me. If I’m honest I suppose it’s because I think that most horror films are badly written, badly made, badly acted and, on the whole, just plain bad.

I never understood why George A Romero got so much praise for those nonsense Day/Dawn/Diary of the Dead movies, I never liked Freddie Kruger and you’ll never catch me anywhere near a Saw film.

The reason behind this post is that the lady in my life is a big fan of horror movies and in recent months I have been subjected to more than at any other time in my life, which might just be the reason behind my disliking – I never watched it when I was young.

Horror movies were never part of my childhood or adolescence. When I started loving films I was watching action, comedy, drama etc. I was probably already well over 20 years old when I watched my first real horror film.

So if one of my friends had somehow gotten a hold of Hellraiser when we were teenagers, would I be queuing up to watch Jigsaw and his nasty traps along with so many others? Maybe, but probably not.

Of course it is now necessary for me to point out my own hypocrisy by saying that it is possible that I have enjoyed some horror movies.

I really enjoyed the first two Scream films. However, I’m not sure they even count as they are more of a lampooning of the horror genre (at least I think so).

I’m also quite a big fan of vampire movies. Although I’m fairly sure that they also don't necessarily count as I’m not sure that films like Interview with a Vampire, Blade, Lost Boys or Buffy can even be classified as horror.

Then again, maybe they can. Perhaps I just class horror movies as gory films that I don’t like.

Either way, if that woman ever forces me to watch another Rob Zombie film then I might be driven to acts of mindless violence!

The Biggest Films of 2009

Last week, my fellow movie blogger Head Hero wrote this post about movietickets.com’s top ten most anticipated films of 2009. Like him I was very surprised that the list seemed to miss out some pretty big titles while including the latest Ice Age film. I know family films do well these days but I’m pretty sure something has gone wrong with that list.

Fortunately Michael Moran at The Times has also had a look at what is coming up next year and come up with 'The 50 Biggest Films of 2009'. This list makes much more sense, with Harry Potter at number 1 followed by Public Enemies, Star Trek, Watchmen and X Men Origins: Wolverine.

Now I can only hope and pray that Harry Potter will do well enough to beat Mamma Mia's current box office record so, by this time next year, I won't feel quite so ashamed.

Quantum of Solace

You may have seen this post I made back in September, lamenting the lack of good movies coming out this autumn. The situation has been so dire that, until yesterday, I hadn’t been to the cinema in almost two months, my longest drought in about 3 years – a shocking state of affairs!

Not only was I unable to find any good independent films to keep me going, but I also had to sit back and watch as Mamma Mia became the UK’s biggest ever film at the British box office. It was almost enough to throw me into a deep depression.

Fortunately, just as things were at their worst, I was saved by the man from MI6. It’s no secret that I’ve always been a bond fan. I’ve been hooked since watching Goldfinger when I couldn’t have been much older than 6 or 7 years old. I loved Sean Connery and hated Roger Moore, was indifferent to George Lazenby and Timothy Dalton, and just felt sorry for Pierce Brosnan who was given nothing to work with after his fantastic debut in Goldeneye.

When it was released Casino Royale very quickly made it into my top three bond films. I’m almost certain that it will become my number one and remain there for a number of years, but I need to make sure that it holds up to the test of time first. Having watched it about 10 times now, most recently a couple of weeks ago, the signs are pretty good.

All of this meant that Quantum of Solace had some pretty big shoes to fill. How do you follow up such an excellent debut? Like many fans I was expecting a lot and, on the whole, I was not disappointed.

The people in charge of Bond certainly aren’t afraid to break the mould and they’ve taken another big risk this time around. Instead of making another stand-alone film they have decided to continue the story that began in Casino Royale with a direct sequel.

The film starts just moments after 007 has made his introduction to the mysterious Mr White with a car chase through the Italian mountains. This is high adrenaline stuff and it sets the pace for the rest of the movie. There is a lot of action and we are quickly reminded of Daniel Craig’s cold, brutal Bond as he investigates the mysterious organisation responsible for the death of his beloved Vespa.

However, this is not a simple revenge film and we are shown a complicated investigation which throw up a number of political obstacles that concerns everyone except our James, who proves a rather focused and tenacious chap to say the least.

The best thing about Quantum of Solace is the same as the best thing in Casino Royale – Daniel Craig. Not only does he have an incredible amount of style, but he is also a very good actor. I’m not sure any of his predecessors could have pulled off the dark, haunted 007 that he portrays in Quantum of Solace.

The supporting cast is also very good, particularly Judi Dench as M and Giancarlo Giannini as Mathis, even if the latter’s screen time was rather brief. Mathieu Amalric was fine as Dominic Greene, but was perhaps a little too sinister for my liking. I know Bond villains are supposed to be particularly ‘evil’ but, in my opinion, the archetypal, cat stroking baddie doesn’t really belong in this new, grittier style.

Despite coming out of the cinema with a smile on my face, I do have some criticisms. I had heard beforehand that the director had gone for more of a Bourne style when it came to the action sequences and it’s certainly true. There are lots of quick cuts used to give an impression of frantic chases and fights. I didn’t really like this, it felt like a gimmick. Marc Forster seems to be of the opinion that you shouldn’t film a sequence from one angle when you can shoot it from 17.

While this is a relatively large complaint I was still very happy with Quantum of Solace. It’s a worthy follow up to Casino Royale thanks to an excellent cast and a great script, which provided some nice moments of humour despite the serious story. There’s also a nice little Goldfinger homage thrown in there with a modern twist, which made me smile.

So if you’ve also been waiting for a film worth returning to the cinema for after the long autumn drought, this is it. Enjoy!

Calling all Iron Man fans

It has been announced today that Robert Downy Jr. has extended his deal with Marvel, so we’ll be seeing a lot more of him as Tony Stark in the future. This means that there will now be at least two sequels to last Summer’s fantastic Iron Man. Good News.

However, what is even more exciting is that we will also see ‘Bob’ in The Avengers, which is scheduled for release in 2011. Don Cheadle, who will replace Terrence Howard as Stark's right-hand man, James Rhodes, will also appear.

This is the first major casting announcement for the Avengers and, in my humble opinion, it’s a great one. Choosing Robert Downy Jr. was one of the best decisions in comic book movie history and I think it will only get better as he explores Stark’s character floors in the coming films.

News on who will play the Hulk, Thor and Captain America are expected in the coming weeks. It looks like the budget for this one is going to get BIG!

My name is Bruce

It's a film staring Bruce Campbell as himself, what more could anyone want?

New Harry Potter trailer

The film has been made. It's been in the can for months, but we don't get to see it until next summer because Warner Brothers are worried that they don't have enough good films for next year.

There are so many things wrong with that I don't know where to begin.

Oh well, at least we can expect loads of trailers and sneak previews until then which, if nothing else, will give me something to write about.

Bayhem under fire

I know that Mark Kermode can come across as a little pretentious, but I usually find him to be one of the best judges of whether or not a film is good or bad.

I also know that he's a man who loves a really good action movie, which probably explains why he launches a tirade against all things 'Michael Bay' in his latest video blog:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/markkermode/2008/10/review_eagle_eye.html

Now I'm as guilty as the next person of enjoying Bad Boys and Transformers, so perhaps it makes me a bit hypocritical to agree with Mark on this one, but I think he has a good point to make here.

While I love the excitement and explosions, the problem here is that they are now being used at the expense of plot, rather than in addition to it. If we're not careful we're in danger of returning to the 80's style of action film which, with a few exceptions, was not a good experience.

But I may well be in the minority. Last I heard, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift made over $150million...

Satchmo

According to Variety, Forest Whitaker is set to direct and star in What A Wonderful World, a biopic of Louis Armstrong.

This sounds like good news to me. His performance as Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland showed that Whitaker is right up there with the likes of Philip Seymour Hoffman as one of this generation’s great character actors – even if the film itself was a big disappointment.

Other than ‘that’ song, ‘that’ voice and the trumpet, I don’t know a great deal about Louis Armstrong, so I’m looking forward to finding out a bit more (with a Hollywood slant of course).

Although I’m always going to have slight reservations about seeing a Whitaker film because I still remember ‘Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai’... shudder!

Quantum Of Solace Trailer

A far better trailer than the 'teaser' released back in the summer... but I suppose that's the point.

I am very optimistic about this one. If it's half as good as Casino Royale then it will still be a great film. Of course I'm expecting a little more than that...